When people think of famous contemporary artists that comment on Christmas, they always think of musicians. However, there are some great contemporary famous artists who made Christmas-related art.
I confess that I discovered by accident that pop artist Andy Warhol made a collection of Christmas artworks, depicting a Christmas sled with presents, Christmas Wreaths, a Christmas Tree, Christmas ornaments, as well as Christmas card designs.
He made most of these in the time that he was still a commercial graphic artist, in the late ’50s. And while they can be seen as an extension of that graphic work for retailers, equally, they can be seen as ‘Happy American Christmas’- imagery, depicting on the illusion of Christmas created through shop fronts and gift cards.
Either way, the actual images themselves are very pleasing, and we use them here as our opportunity to wish all our loyal readers Happy Holidays & an Artsy New Year!
Warhol’s early Christmas Art/h2>
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Andy Warhol’s Christmas art ~ late in his career
Then, much later in his career, he revisited the Christmas theme, and made some Poinsettas designs.
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Other Contemporary Famous Artists on Christmas
Last year, graffiti artist Banksy went to Bethlehem and decorated the security barrier near town with a series of stencilled artworks. The year before this he did ‘Santa’s Ghetto’ back in the UK, with related artworks (a santa with a sign ‘event cancelled’).
Other contemporary artists who commented on Christmas specifically have included Henri Matisse, with his artwork ‘Christmas Eve’, which was a design for a church window. While a good part of the oeuvre of his contemporary, Marc Chagall, was religious, I could not find anyone on Christmas in particular.
Personally, I can not imagine that Jeff Koons has not yet made a huge inflatable Christmas Santa or snowman (or I overlooked it), but at least he made a limited edition Rudolf the reindeer toy, complete with red nose.
Throughout time, artists have depicted religious Christmas scenes. For example, Albert Bierstadt, Sandro Botticelli, Rembrandt van Rijn, Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, and many other old masters all painted the nativity scene.
Famous contemporary artists appear not as overtly spiritually inclined as their forefathers. Instead, many contemporary artists have depicted the much more neutral topic of ‘Winter’ at some stage or another.
So, to create a record of time, a future blog article on the celebration of light in winter by contemporary artists is forthcoming in January. It will feature great works by such artists as photographic genius Ansel Adams and other famous artists. Stay tuned!
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